I just got my Altos ACS-8000 hard disk controller repaired yesterday and was
able to connect the Gesswein MFM emulator and format it, run through the
read/write tests, and copy some files onto it. Now I'd like to install MP/M II,
but it seems there's no archive sites anywhere that have copies of
On Dec 4, 2019, at 12:07 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk
wrote:
> What sort of connection speeds are you getting?
>
> What codec(s) are you using? ulaw / alaw / something else?
https://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/230/using-modems-without-phone-lines
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On Nov 15, 2019, at 1:54 PM, alan--- via cctalk wrote:
> MCU should set receive line coding to 8,N,1. When in command mode, you don't
> care about parity
Actually it's in command mode that you *do* care about parity, which is why I
added the parity detection in the first place. Without the
On Nov 13, 2019, at 5:07 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
wrote:
> What do you need to do to use an acoustic modem with a cellphone?
> You can get a "retro" handset for a cellphone, that will fit the rubber cups,
> but, will it work?
Yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQqWHLZjOjA
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On Jul 18, 2018, at 10:21 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk
wrote:
> I would think that any interpreted BASIC would do this or for that matter any
> interpreted language except maybe for APL
You'd think so but many BASIC dialects don't fully tokenize. Many leave in all
the extra spaces the user
I acquired a Dataspeed Conductor floppy controller about a month ago in order
to install it in my IMSAI with the JAIR 8080 so I could hook up some 8" floppy
drives. Fortunately it came with a manual, schematics, and an example BIOS for
CP/M 1.4. I've been fighting with it for quite a while thoug
I got Kermit working on my JAIR 8080 which powers my IMSAI! It wasn't as simple
as I expected, turned out I had a small hardware problem which Josh Bensadon
helped me fix. I've posted my changes to Kermit along with a LASM compatible
cross-assembler, source and tools are available here:
http:
On Aug 7, 2017, at 12:04 PM, dwight via cctalk wrote:
> I've not seen any photos posted yet.
I've been posting pictures of things I brought home from VCFWest as I tinker
with them to Twitter. I haven't even been posting my stuff to
RetroBattlestations! Don't want to stop and organize my thoug
On Jan 13, 2017, at 2:47 AM, Corey Cohen wrote:
> Is there a way to use a BBC Micro PAL version with a modern US LCD TV?
I do it by using a GBS8200 to convert the RGB output to VGA. I also use the
original power supply by changing some jumpers inside to make it work with US
120V power.
ht
On Sep 11, 2016, at 2:28 AM, Mark Wickens wrote:
> I'd like the opposite - to use a USB controller with a vintage computer
> (Atari compatible - for example ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64). Does anyone know
> of an adapter or a homebrew project?
I've been using a Raspberry Pi, some shift registers
It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestations!
https://redd.it/500myn
This week is about those devices that you connect to a computer so that you can
read output and provide input through a keyboard. The oldest terminals used
paper for the display, and in the mid '70s the "glass TTY" became much
July is BASIC Month and there's another challenge happening on
RetroBattlestations. The type-in program for this challenge borrows a little
bit of code from the very first BASIC challenge that I did. I've created a
little "turtle graphics" type program that uses a stack based command
interprete
On Jun 9, 2016, at 7:54 AM, Chris Osborn wrote:
> Is there a LASM compatible assembler out there with source available that I
> can run on Linux?
Well there is now! I spent yesterday working on it and I coded up something
myself in Python. It pre-processes assembly files that were in
On Jun 10, 2016, at 4:47 AM, Tor Arntsen wrote:
> Is LASM-TDL compatible with LASM? There's source for the former.
No, it's a different animal. It uses TDL syntax and isn't entirely LASM
compatible and isn't able to assemble Kermit. The lasm.doc file included claims
that it's a modified ver
On May 3, 2016, at 8:42 AM, Chris Osborn wrote:
> Does anyone have any idea of how to get this thing open (without breaking the
> plastic)? I’ve searched all over the internet but I can’t find any scanned
> service manuals. The typewriter is from 1984 and was sold for $600 new so it
After getting my TRS-80 Model II keyboard repaired and up & running last week
(http://www.insentricity.com/a.cl/257), I've been messing around with the
Kermit source code to see if I can add hardware flow control support. I'm able
to build Kermit using LASM on CP/M or on an emulator, but it woul
I picked up a Smith-Corona Memory Correct 400 Messenger typewriter at Goodwill
last week. It has the daisy wheel but no ribbon. I debated getting it since I
already have enough retro stuff around the house, but every single time I’m at
a Goodwill I look at all the typewriters to see if they have
On Jan 24, 2016, at 4:18 AM, Rik Bos wrote:
> The VGA is IIRC SOG (Sync On Green) not all monitors support this.
> If you have a HP-IB/GP-IB interface for a PC you can use Ansgars HPDrive to
> boot.
> It's found at www.hp9845.net .
I have an HP 9000/360 and I don't have an HP-HIL keyboard or s
On Dec 8, 2015, at 10:46 AM, Brian Adams wrote:
> Would be nice if more of you people with Kewl Machines posted pictures on
> there!
Would really love to see some of the big iron playing music through an AM radio
since it's Holiday Music Week on RetroBattlestations right now.
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On Dec 8, 2015, at 9:55 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
> The community is a lot bigger than you realize. A wild guess might be
> in the few thousands by now.
I've got 13,000 on RetroBattlestations and I doubt very many of them know about
the cctalk mailing list.
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On Nov 11, 2015, at 10:57 AM, Kyle Owen wrote:
> I've burned a CD with OmniWeb
If you need a replacement icon for it, I made some a long time ago:
http://i.imgur.com/EKNAukO.png
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Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com
> On Nov 5, 2015, at 12:37 PM, Dale H. Cook wrote:
>
> There is strong possibility that one of those bridges might not work. As a
> rule the bit-reduction used by cellular phones, VOIP phones, and cable-modem
> phones renders dialup modems useless, unless you are using something like a
> fax-
On Oct 16, 2015, at 8:18 AM, dwight wrote:
> I do still have some 16 hole 5-1/4 punches left. ( anyone want one? )
I’d love to see a picture of one just to see how it was made and how it clamps
to the disk.
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On Sep 28, 2015, at 8:41 AM, John Ball wrote:
> The IR grid for simulating a touchscreen wasn't really HP exclusive.
It’s not just the IR grid that makes it look like an HP 150. The green screen
is the same size and the way that it draws the screen looks exactly like what I
would expect from
On Sep 26, 2015, at 10:20 AM, Sellam ibn Abraham wrote:
> I wanted to share this because it's pretty neat:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BHIknNa6Eg
>
> It's a ~6 minute tour of a home automation system from the 1980s that
> features graphical floor layouts and touch screen programming.
On Sep 13, 2015, at 5:24 PM, Eric Christopherson
wrote:
> What format is the Commodore-sprites.spd file in?
SpritePad
http://www.subchristsoftware.com/spritepad.htm
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Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com
I do a regular contest on RetroBattlestations called BASIC Week which is a sort
of tribute to the days when it was common for programs to be published in books
and magazines and people would type them into their computers. One of the neat
things about distributing software through type-in listin
On Aug 17, 2015, at 3:44 PM, drlegendre . wrote:
> Any sense of what PC models / controllers are capable of this task?
Anything that will run ImageDisk or Teledisk will work. It doesn’t necessarily
have to be one of those computers, you could pull the 360k drives from one of
them and hook the
On Aug 10, 2015, at 9:43 AM, Fred Cisin wrote:
> But, why give up an entire ISA slot just to hold a DB25 and a DA15 connector?
> You coulda made up a Compact Flash or SD card pseudo hard-drive that ALSO
> has a DE9 and DA15 connector on its bracket.
I have plans to make a bracketless XTIDE
One of my favorite old computers to tinker with is a rev B IBM PC. I recently
moved it out into my living room to hopefully inspire me to mess with it more,
but I still didn’t want to mess with having to put everything on 360k floppies.
With all the slots occupied I had to find another solution
On Aug 7, 2015, at 9:18 AM, Eric Christopherson
wrote:
> Is there a subset of this group for people who like to program in
> languages or language implementations or libraries that are no longer
> in common mainstream use? Or other groups for such a thing?
I do programming in BASIC twice a year
On Jul 10, 2015, at 8:48 AM, Paul Koning wrote:
> Wow, it’s amazing that a device like that would be bothered by splines. It
> speaks to the lack of competence on the part of the implementer. Perhaps
> this problem dates back to the dark old ages of first generation cutters and
> has been c
Begin forwarded message:
> From: John Robertson
> Subject: Re: email gripe
> Date: July 7, 2015 at 6:03:49 PM PDT
> To: gene...@classiccmp.org,
> "discuss...@classiccmp.org":On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>
> Reply-To: pinb...@telus.net, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic
> Posts"
On Jul 7, 2015, at 4:18 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> using Thunderbird
Which I’ve noticed has problems parsing the
"General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
No matter which platform anyone is using, it’s always Thunderbird that creates
the gene...@classiccmp.org address into
On Jun 18, 2015, at 7:20 AM, Chris Osborn wrote:
> "The logo up to then had been the letters DEC in blocks the shape of
> the plug-in cards that DEC had been producing."
>
> Does anyone have a picture of that? My Google-fu is failing me. I love
> cutt
Thanks to Josh Dersch I now have a good copy of the ROM for the Altos 8500
boards. I’ve put it up online here:
http://retrobattlestations.com/Altos/Altos-8000-8500.rom
I burned it and popped it in but my Altos still doesn’t come up. Nothing is
output on console 1. I’ll have to start walking t
> On Jun 18, 2015, at 10:31 AM, william degnan wrote:
>
> Altos ACS 8000 8500 board schematics/chapter from the 8000 hardware
> supplement posted here:
> http://vintagecomputer.net/altos/8000/
There’s a diagram there but no schematics. If you want the schematics for the
8500 board they are her
On Jun 18, 2015, at 11:15 AM, Rich Alderson
wrote:
>
>> That’s the modern Digital logo, not the DEC logo that looks like the plug-in
>> cards. I thought you had a ps of the original pre-1957 DEC logo.
>
> Pre-1957??? That would be a good trick…
I’m just going along with what that web site sa
On Jun 18, 2015, at 8:46 AM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Jun 2015, Chris Osborn wrote:
>
>> I?d love to get a copy!
>
> http://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200712/ancient_history_the_digital_logo.html
> <http://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200712/ancient_history_the_digit
On Jun 18, 2015, at 7:30 AM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Jun 2015, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
>
>> I suppose it's this one:
>>
>> http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/still-image/dec/pdp-1_online/dec.flip_flop_201.102633142.lg.jpg
>
> I have a copy laying around as PostScript.
I’d
It’s Droste Week on RetroBattlestations! Inspired by a couple of different
posts, I thought it would be fun to do a challenge where people don’t just post
a picture of their computer, but they display the picture of their computer
*on* their computer and post that! It’s going quite well and I re
On Jun 18, 2015, at 7:25 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
> I suppose it's this one:
>
> http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/still-image/dec/pdp-1_online/dec.flip_flop_201.102633142.lg.jpg
I found that one a couple of times but it just looked like a rectangle to me,
not “plug-in cards”, so
On Jun 18, 2015, at 4:42 AM, Jonathan Katz wrote:
> There is a Postscript doc out there with the DEC "D I G I T A L" logo
> in blocks. That may be a start.
>
> http://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200712/ancient_history_the_digital_logo.html
"The logo up to then had been the letters DEC in bl
On Jun 17, 2015, at 7:43 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> Are the readers in question these ones in Canada?
When you drive up there to get them, you can stop by my house on your way home
and drop one off. I’m in Sacramento so I’m right on the way. I’ll let you play
some air hockey while you’re here
On Jun 15, 2015, at 2:36 PM, Ian McLaughlin wrote:
> Does your reader have any other ‘brands’ of 2716 you could try? What about
> trying to read it as a 2732? Looking at the pinouts it looks like the only
> difference is pin 21 which is Vpp (programming voltage) on a 2716 and A11 on
> a 2732.
On Jun 15, 2015, at 2:19 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> Having said that, _I_ don't have 2N3904s nor NE555s around either! I do have
> a modest number of parts (e.g. 4164's, 40-ping Berg shells, .250 tab
> hardware, etc, etc) - a large enough collection that I just had to
> re-organize and add more p
On Jun 15, 2015, at 2:01 PM, Josh Dersch wrote:
> I have an ACS 8000-10 at home (which I believe is the same machine with a
> smaller hard drive), let me see if I can read the EPROM out of it tonight…
It actually might be essentially the same machine. From what I can tell the 15A
originally sh
On Jun 15, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Ian McLaughlin wrote:
> All zeroes is really strange - a blank EPROM is all ones, so it’s not that it
> got exposed to UV light.
It definitely does seem strange. I wonder if maybe it’s a TI style 2716? It’s a
National Semiconductor MM2716Q.
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Found a single 2716 EPROM on the Altos and pulled it out and read it in with my
MiniPro TL866CS and it comes back as entirely 00. Since that seemed pretty odd
I grabbed another 2716 out of an old Nintendo board and it reads fine, so I'm
pretty sure the TL866CS can read 2716.
I have a feeling th
On Jun 15, 2015, at 3:06 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 11:52:28AM +0200, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>
>> We're talking about putting in a rather complex computer to generate
>> a baud rate. Are people really that handicapped when it comes to
>> building hardware nowadays?
>
On Jun 14, 2015, at 2:00 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> If you have your null-modem/no-null-modem swaps right, the active
> lines will be complementary on each side.
Traced the console port back to the 1488 that it’s connected to, and also
determined that the Altos *is* wired as DCE which makes more
On Jun 14, 2015, at 2:18 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> They're still very much around. I recommend those as well as the LED monitor
> gizmos that tells you what the signal lines are doing.
I know companies still make RS232 breakout boxes, I’ve just never seen any that
were as nice as the ones I
On Jun 14, 2015, at 2:00 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> I wouldn't assume anything with serial ports, especially vintage ones.
> Look into getting a "traffic light" that displays state on LEDs
Back in college in the HP lab we had these really nice RS232 breakout boxes
with jumper pins and LEDs that
On Jun 14, 2015, at 1:14 PM, Ian McLaughlin wrote:
> Nice find! I have a vague recollection of doing repairs on something similar
> that was used as a Unix machine to run cash registers at a pharmacy during
> the late 80s. Sure looks familiar. Any idea what it runs?
Apparently it can run CP/
Last week while bored and browsing eBay looking at things that are ending soon
something I had never heard of caught my eye: an Altos ACS 8000-15A. I looked
at the pictures and googled the brand and model and it didn’t seem to be a very
common computer and there were no bids on the item so I put
On Jun 12, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Vincent Slyngstad wrote:
> OK, though I'm unclear why a mail client would be rewriting the line
> (as opposed to just copying it around).
Because the mail client doesn’t know that it’s rewriting it, it thinks it found
two email addresses.
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On Jun 12, 2015, at 5:04 AM, Vincent Slyngstad wrote:
> There seem to be a number of messages from various folks
> where the reply address has been rewritten to
> gene...@classiccmp.org;discuss...@classiccmp.org:On-Topic
> and Off-Topic Posts;
> instead of
> General discuss...@classiccmp.org:O
On Jun 9, 2015, at 6:40 AM, Rod Smallwood wrote:
> 2, They are my Type A. (As photo)
There is no photo, the mailing list removes attachments. Could you put the
picture on http://imgur.com and send the link?
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Check out my blog: http://insentricit
On Jun 1, 2015, at 7:03 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> Now I'm even more curious about the reports I've heard about having trouble
> with video conversion, since the first cheap converter I tried seemed to work
> OK with an Apple //c.
Color is always the problem with converters. The cheap compos
On Jun 1, 2015, at 5:24 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> I received the $19 composite video to HDMI converter that I ordered from
> Amazon, tested it a bit with my Apple //c, and posted pictures of the results
> here:
>
>http://www.nf6x.net/2015/06/cheap-hdmi-converter-with-apple-c/
>
> Text m
On May 29, 2015, at 8:50 AM, Sean Caron wrote:
> I don't buy it :O Maybe just navigating around the operating system it's
> true you won't see it balk too much, but once you run an app ... take
> OmniWeb;
OmniWeb was always slow, even on HPPA and Pentium II hardware. It’s a very poor
app to u
On May 28, 2015, at 8:20 AM, Sean Caron wrote:
> Can you even run Openstep on the NeXT proprietary hardware? The performance
> must be awful…
My NeXTstation 25mhz 68040 with 40 megs of RAM runs OPENSTEP 4.2 just fine. I
never felt like it was laggy or anything. In fact, when I got OSX (aka OP
On May 23, 2015, at 12:35 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote:
> The GBS-8200/8220 does support CGA
The GBS-8200/8220 supports analog signals, not digital. It will directly
support the 15khz misnamed “CGA” of arcade monitors (which is the same RGB
signal the IIgs puts out), but that’s an analog signal,
On May 23, 2015, at 12:05 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> That really surprises me. Mine was utterly unusable with the IIGS. The
> desktop (and all icons, folders, etc.) had distinct vertical bands through
> them. Also, lots of dot-crawl at sharp edges from what I recall.
I believe mine is a kn
On May 23, 2015, at 9:33 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> Has anybody tried this board with home computers that are known to be
> troublesome with modern displays?
The GBS-8200/8220 doesn’t support composite input, only RGB. I’ve used the
board on quite a few of my computers that output RGB and it
On May 23, 2015, at 8:24 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> In the middle will be some FPGA to perform any necessary magic. I've been
> looking at a prohibitively expensive ($115) one that has enough dual-port RAM
> blocks to support a frame buffer.
Are you on the CoCo mailing list? Have you seen the
On May 22, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> Do you have anything like Freecycle in your area? Usually, if you say you're
> looking for an old-style TV, people will jump at the chance to give away the
> old sets.
Heh, I have a few already. :-) I’ve even got one of those funny looking on
On May 22, 2015, at 9:26 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> I've ordered a $15 composite to HDMI converter from Amazon to try out for
> myself with my Apple IIe and IIc. I'd also like to try out my Color Computers
> with a modern monitor to see if the color aliasing used by some games can be
> reprod
On May 19, 2015, at 1:46 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
>
> Did anything use US VHF channel 2? I can't recall whether I have seen that
> used before, but I have a feeling that I might have.
The NTSC Atari 2600 switches between 2 & 3.
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On May 19, 2015, at 1:03 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> My old Color Computer used US VHF channels 3 or 4 for NTSC video. I found a
> reference to the ZX Spectrum using UK UHF channel 35 for PAL video.
My NTSC ZX81 uses US UHF 34/35.
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